Mendonça Filho VCM, de Oliveira AG, Maia IDFVC, de Falcone ACM, Betini BG, Rezende LB, Magri Alves FH. COVID-19 in the nervous system: physiopathology and neurological manifestations.
Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2023;
81:756-763. [PMID:
37402400 PMCID:
PMC10468725 DOI:
10.1055/s-0043-1769123]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2022] [Accepted: 01/24/2023] [Indexed: 07/06/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Although respiratory manifestations have received greater visibility during the pandemic caused by this virus, numerous neurological complaints related to coronavirus 2 infection have been documented in several countries. These records suggest that this pathogen presents neurotropism, and it can cause different neurological conditions of varying intensity.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the ability of coronavirus 2 to invade the central nervous system (CNS) and its neurological clinical outcomes.
METHODS
The present study consists in a comprehensive literature review of the records available in the PubMed, SciELO, and Google Scholar databases. The descriptors COVID-19, brain and physiopathology, associated with the Boolean operator AND, were used in the search. Regarding the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we selected the papers published since 2020 with the highest number of citations.
RESULTS
We selected 41 articles, most of them in English. The main clinical manifestation associated with COVID-19 patients was headache, but cases of anosmia, hyposmia, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and encephalopathies were also described with considerable frequency.
CONCLUSION
Coronavirus-2 presents neurotropism, and it can reach the CNS by hematogenous dissemination and by direct infection of the nerve endings. It causes brain injuries through several mechanisms, such as cytokine storm, microglial activation, and an increase in thrombotic factors.
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